December 18th: Skyrgámur

I think the 8th Yule Lad, Skyrgámur, who comes from the mountains tonight is maybe the Yule Lad that you will identify with the most. His name in English means Skyr Gobbler because of his limitless love of Skyr. Who doesn’t love skyr?

For those who don’t know, Skyr is a very popular dairy product that has been available in Iceland for a long long time but it’s was earliest mentioned in stories from the 13th and 14th centuries When I was young there were only one or two kinds and because of it’s sour flavor and weird texture my mom would have to stir it with a bit of milk and sugar so we would be willing to eat it. On special occasions we would eat it with a bit of heavy cream mixed with milk. Super delicious.

Nowadays there are many different types of skyr with different flavors like vanilla, strawberry, blueberry and baked apples. It’s very high in protein and because of the convenient containers it comes in its’ a really handy snack to grab on the go. I personally eat Skyr almost every day.

Skyrgámur is really strong and would break the wooden lids of the big pots where the skyr was stored with his bare hands. Then he would eat the skyr basically till he burst. To Skyrgámur there’s no such thing as too much Skyr.

Maybe Skygámur was Iceland’s first real strong man. I mean, they are on high protein diets too. Although I’m not certain he would be eligible for those competitions since he’s a half troll and all.